Seth McLaughlin’s near-disastrous early snap during Alabama’s final drive of the Iron Bowl might have been provoked by an illegal action from Auburn’s defense.

Facing a second-and-goal from the Auburn 8-yard line with 1:43 remaining, McLaughlin snapped the ball too early, forcing quarterback Jalen Milroe to race back for it before falling on it at the Auburn 26-yard line. The 18-yard loss set up a daunting third-and-goal for the Tide. However, it could have easily been negated by a flag on Auburn.

Leading up to the snap, Auburn safety Zion Puckett appeared to clap at Alabama’s offensive line. Since Alabama was not working out of a silent count, McLaughlin mistook the clap for Milroe’s signal, prompting him to snap the ball before the quarterback was ready for it.

Puckett’s action could have easily been called for a disconcerting signals penalty, which would have negated the play and moved Alabama half the distance to the goal.

During Sunday’s SEC Championship Game teleconference, Nick Saban was asked about the uncalled penalty. While the Alabama head coach was hesitant to criticize the officials, he did say that a penalty should have been called if Puckett did indeed clap in an attempt to confuse McLaughlin.

"First of all, the defense is not allowed to clap, if that's what you're using as a cadence," Saban said. "If what you say actually occurred, and I did see the film, then that's ... I'm not criticizing the officiating, but I am saying that's supposed to be a penalty."

According to a source close to the program, Alabama went on a "ready-clap" snap count against Auburn. The cadence involves Milroe yelling "ready" before clapping his hands for the ball. With that in mind, it's understandable how McLaughlin could have confused Puckett's clap as a clap from Milroe, especially in a raucous environment like the one Alabama faced inside Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday.

"If you look on film, their safety actually walks up and claps," Alabama left guard Tyler Booker told The Next Round on Monday. "We'd been going off clap for the whole game. I heard the clap too, but I just wasn't sure, so I went on the movement of the ball.

"Things like that happen, we have to account for that. In a loud environment for that, you're just waiting and listening on that clap. When you hear any kind of clap, that's distinctive and that's on the field, you're gonna flinch. I think everybody on the offensive line definitely flinched and Seth just snapped the ball. There's nothing that we could have done about that. We just had a next-play mentality."

During Alabama’s game at Texas A&M earlier this season, Alabama opted to use a silent snap count in order to avoid miscommunications on the line. That move backfired as the Crimson Tide was flagged for nine false starts. When asked, it did not sound as though Saban was going to revert back to the silent count moving forward.

"We have gone to the silent count before, and that has its issues, too," Saban said. "Look, you're not allowed to clap on defense, so if you're using clap as your cadence, why would you change your cadence so somebody does something they're not supposed to do on the other side of the ball? Doesn't make any sense to me.”

While No. 8 Alabama won't play any more true road games this season, the Crimson Tide could face another noisy environment when it takes on No. 1 Georgia next weekend in the SEC Championship Game inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.